Tuesday, September 29, 2015

A New Start with Gloves

Two years ago, the father of this gorgeous yarn (go buy some!) declared that he dislikes making socks and prefers gloves. I've made gloves before, but never felt the joy. Still, Caerthan is cool, and my dork reflexes advise me to like the things the cool kids do, so I threw myself into it.

The result was the Evil Genius Glove Recipe, a fingers-down method of making gloves. It served me for awhile, and I enjoyed the process of learning about gloves--different gussets, thoughts about fit and negative ease, ways to manage the fourchettes and inevitable holes--but my joy faded pretty quickly.

What I really wanted was a game-changing trick for gloves, something that took away the annoyance and made it fun. (I once mused on Facebook about how cool it would be if a brilliant innovator like Cat Bordhi would turn her attention to gloves.)

I think I've finally found that trick. It seems to originate with Cathy Scott, who figured out that the "peasant thumb" technique of using waste yarn to create a thumb opening could be used with a gusseted thumb and even with finger connections: no casting off and casting back on. She explained the thumb technique on her blog, but it was her IPOD Gloves pattern that blew my mind. In the past month, I've made 4 pairs of gloves, and each finger teaches me something new about how this trick works.

I hope to put out my own glove pattern--a new recipe--using this technique next year. Before then, I have a lot of testing to do to perfect the fit and instructions. I'm not making any promises, but it's possible that this journey might give me something to write about on this long-dormant blog.